Nothing Alike
by Jenihenpen
Summary: Raph and Leo go for pizza, sadly they're too busy kicking butt to get there and it seems poor Raph's going to have one of *those* nights. Just a one shot working on the brotherly team dynamic, rated for some violence and a couple of bad words.


Hey guys, this is the first fic I've writen for quite a few years as I'm pretty bad at completing anything. It's also my first ever TMNT fic so please don't be too harsh on me! Any reviews would be greatly welcomed and I hope you enjoy. The idea started as a prompt on Stealthy Stories but then took a wierd turn.

* * *

Ok, so it was going to be one of _those_ nights.

Everything started off just peachy, Leo and I had gone out to pick up some pizzas when we noticed a bunch of thugs sneaking around this old factory warehouse that makes car parts. Being the concerned neighbours we were (that hadn't kicked butt in a while), we decided to check it out. Turns out it was some kinda big Purple Dragon weapons trade-off.

"Ok Raph, let's keep this clean and smooth" Leo murmers quietly to me as we slither across the shadows and into a better postion for a suprise attack. I scowl and roll my eyes at the needless words, we're ninja for Pete's sake, he doesn't need to remind me how to do what we both spent our entire lives training to do best.

He smirks at me knowing I think he's an idiot, and silently points with a minute tilt of his head the direction he's going to pounce from. I nod and creep down low behind some machinery to position myself in my own perfect spot, sliding my sais from my sides in one fluid move.

It's dificult to explain how my brothers and I just _know _the instant we should move as one. I don't need to be able to see or hear Leo, who's hidden figure lies somewhere in the black cloak of darkness to know he'll leap out at the exact same moment as me. It's almost like we just tune into the same instinct or whatever. Must be something to do with growing up in such close quarters and learning all the same lessons our whole damn lives.

So my old pal Hun is examining these guns while some other tattooed moron is proudly harping on about how amazing they are. Being a hand to hand combat kinda guy, I don't understand the need to have so many different types of gun, it's not like you need any skill to wield one effectively. Just about any nut can use one, and they all do the same thing; Point- Bang. A fancier gun isn't gonna make someone that little bit more dead right?

I'm still waiting for my moment to move here, but it's not right just yet. Hun still has a couple of pieces of merchandise in his grip and a large selection of other options are spread out in front of him that his little army might decide on picking up and using on us should we decide to strike now. I'm getting frustrated though, there's nothing more boring than listening to someone else's business meeting, 'specially when you're poised on tenderhooks incase something causes the action to start.

I began thinking of those pizzas we weren't getting. Mikey would be foaming at the mouth by now, poor Don would have his imaginary hearing aid turned off to help ignore the whinging while tweaking at one of his devices, Splinter no doubt too absorbed in his soaps to even notice. He's not as major on pizza as the rest of us but likes us to sit down as a family for meals.

Great. Now I'm _hungry _on top of being bored out of my mind. My knees are starting to ache and my thighs are going numb from being crouched low on the balls of my feet for so long, could do with a really nice hard stretch.

I don't have long to dwell on this thought though, cos Hun and the other guy are shaking hands and Hun signals to his lackies to get the gear packed up and into their truck. I creep forward on my haunches a few more inches, adrenaline is trickling down my arms and legs in anticipation of the attack. Hun puts down the guns and everything is boxed back up and loaded into the van. As the door slams we move. Leo and I just fly out of the shadows like one mirrored creature. A few dull thuds as fists and feet meet solid bodies followed by the odd muffled grunt is the only warning Hun and the other goons get that we're there, taking them out. Some of the less stupid ones are running to get the hell away, the more stupid however are throwing themselves at us like sharkbait.

Morons.

I notice a couple scramble for the truck with the weapons, Hun has disappeared. That can only mean trouble. Leo's blades are flashing in swift strokes besides him as he leaps and twists around the less than graceful deadbeats trying to overpower him on numbers. I'm being given a similar reception from badly dressed gurning champions myself, only they're too stupid to realise thay ain't gonna get any prettier dancing with me.

A series of deafening bangs loud enough to knock me out of my thoughts suddenly shatters the relative quiet and I immediately glance at Leo to make sure he's ok. His eyes are on mine in the exact same instance, all wide and concerned... Geeze, big brothers are so damn overprotective!

So once that tender half second with captain prissy pants has passed, we return to kicking ass with the intentention of not only taking down the idiots with the guns, but also hoping to avoid being shot.

Piece of cake.

Well, would have been anyway had good old fashioned turtle luck not reared its ugly head at that particular moment. I take out two dragons with a roundhouse kick then swivel and backsweep a third, rising to fist another in the jaw with my sai when all of a sudden this agonising pain rips up the calf of my right leg and I slump uncontrollably to one knee. Leo shouts my name as I continue to fend off attackers from this position, my teeth grit hard as the pain in my leg burns like a bitch.

How spectacularly embarassing to get cramp at a time like this.

One of the goons manages to get a lucky swipe on me and punches the side of my head with a knuckleduster, world goes kinda blank then really colourful and bright before I knock the guy into next week. Next thing I know someone bodily slams into me and we roll off out of the way of another series of earsplitting blasts before I notice it's Leo hauling me behind cover of the heavy machienery.

Damn my head hurts. Least my leg isn't bothering me quite so much anymore. I've sure forgotten about being hungry too. Leo's eyes are assessing me intensely as his hands chase for wounds on my leg, thinking I've been injured. I push him off.

"Sss'fine ya douche, I 'ain' huurt" Alright so my voice didn't come out quite as sharp as I would have liked. He's giving me this look as if to say _I'm_ the douche and gently palms the throbbing bump above my left eye frowning as he pulls it away showing blood on his fingers. He then gives me this sardonic '_really?_' expression and I scowl back at him.

"Time to go" He says seriously in a low voice so only I would hear, ignoring my snort of disbelief.

"I'm fine Leo!" I hiss back, "We leave now and we've achieved nuthin' by comin' here."

"I'd rather leave with the both of us in one piece than risk everything for a couple of crates of guns Raph"

"But those couple'a crates could cost a few dozen _lives_ if we let 'em make it to the streets!" I ground back, I'm ever the kink in his perfect, well-oiled leader brain that makes him think twice.

He stared at me searching my eyes to see if I were serious about this or just trying to prove myself and salvage my pride. I ignored the pounding in my skull and held his gaze. Hoping I looked calm and in control and not recklessly in want of a fight and sporting a star spangled concussion.

"..._**Fine**_. But you stay close to me and we're leaving if things get out of control."

I nodded my head just a fraction still holding his gaze though in my mind I'm doing the happy dance. I love it when I win against direct 'fearless leader orders.' Can't let him know that 'til after we defeat the scum though, 'cos he was still frowning at me like it went against all his big brother instinct. He sighs heavily and shakes his head, dropping his sight back down to what was bothering me enough to throw my game earlier.

"Your leg ok?"

I hadn't even realised I was massaging the aching calf muscle that had spazzed out on me a few moments ago until he spoke. I grimaced in embarrassment.

"Nuthin's wrong with it."

"Then what the hell just happened out there?" I opened my mouth to retort with something witty and intellegent, but a series of gun shots over our heads shut down all conversation and sent us vanishing silently into deeper shadows.

"Those freaks're around here somewhere boys, don't let 'em leave here alive!"

Y'know, I think I've lost count of the number of times I've heard Hun say that. Think he'd realise by now that his goons are too damn underqualified to fulfill an order like that.

Leaving him along with half his lackies to search for us through the rear of the warehouse I decide to make good our objective and slink silently back towards the trucks where the majority of the weapons are still packed out in the open centre space. Sheathing my sais and removing a small explosive from my belt I skirt the cover of the outlining machienery, I hear a soft thump and muffled grunt dead ahead and realise Leo's got exactly the same thought in his head as he mirrors my position from across the room.

...And there are times when I like to think we're nothing alike.

Smirking to myself I can't help but feel grateful to Hun for being so spectacularly dumb. There he is with the majority of his little soldiers mixed up in the jungle of all that heavy machinery and car parts, leaving his precious motherload of weapons just sitting here out in the open with barely anyone to look after it.

Heh, I should really teach him a lesson here about priorities.

Flipping up onto the top of a forklift I have to pause as the world takes a couple of moments longer than normal to stop moving. I feel blood run into my eye and swipe it away with the tail end of my bandana. Can't _believe_ I got a stupid leg cramp in the middle of a fight. Why does this never happen to the heroes on tv? If Mikey were here to see it I don't think I'd ever live it down. Hell, if Leo figure's it out I don't think I'll ever live it down! He'll spend the rest of my life lecturing me on the importance of stretching properly before every outing. I probably won't even be able to take a dump without limbering up first.

Brushing away the traumatising mental image I check out my surroundings. There's a couple of guys nervously pacing below me each carrying an automatic sub and pointing them at every shadow, expecting either me or my bro to leap out and make them shit their pants.

Well, they're nearly right.

I throw down a smoke pellet between them and they both panic, turning towards the smoke and randomly firing at what they can't see. Just so happens to be each other. Probably not Leo's idea of amusing but I was sure pleased with myself. I leap over onto the truck and sneak the explosive into the crate of armoured goods and click on the two minute countdown before taking out another hired monkey coming at me with a crowbar.

Leo flits past my vision in an arc as he throws down some huge guy using his legs to lock him by the throat and back flip. He matches smirks with me when he rolls back to his feet, that move never gets boring, you'd think he was also friggin' enjoying this too. He get's it in my quick nod that I've planted the bomb and we both quickly make our way towards the exit before Hun and the others can scramble back.

I don't get too far however, before man mountain himself is directly in my path. He fires a line of shots at me from his fancy new toy and I pounce at the wall rebounding back and over him, landing a hard snap kick right between his shoulder blades knocking the air clean out of his lungs.

He stumbles forward before recovering and spinning to fire at me again, plowing towards me like a seriously pissed bull. I roll down to his feet this time feeling a searing flash of pain in my arm and something jolt my shell with a crack but I fluidly leap up at him as I come into striking distance. I uppercut him in the face then slam my elbow down as hard as I can onto the forearm holding the gun. He yelps painfully and the weapon hits the floor. I land and sweep it away, conscious of the fact I'm too close for comfort to the truck full of weapons that're gonna go ka-boom any moment now.

Hun grips his arm which is most likely fractured if not broken and lurches at me with speed a guy his size would never normally posses. He tries to headbutt me but I weave swiftly to the side, barely escaping a coma had it connected and ram my knee into his chin, I hear his teeth clack together and a spurt of blood dribbles in rivers over his lips.

He screams and falls to his knees grasping his face, no doubt wondering exactly how much tongue he just chomped off. Leo then flies in out of friggin _nowhere _using Hun's hunched over back as a spring board to get to me, grabs me by the wrist and just keeps going pulling me into a sprint beside him. We make it out onto the street and half way up a fire escape when the explosives go off, sending out chunks of metal and glass and almost knocking me off the ladder.

Finally making it onto the roof panting like dogs we made sure to keep going a couple of blocks before my vision went a bit screwy again and next thing I know, big brother's got one of my arms over his shoulders and is leading me to a sheltered area behind a shed.

"Raph? Raphael, can you hear me ok?"

I nod. I'm dead tired but damn that was fun.

"Ok bro, let's park you here for a sec, I'm gonna check you're alright."

He sits me down with my shell against a wall and glides his hands over a stinging scrape on my shoulder and then the edge of my shell where that bullet grazed me. He swallows and looks back to me giving a half smile that doesn't reach his eyes. "Ok Raph look at me" I watch him silently as he tilts my chin up and checks for a concussion "Keep looking" he tilts my head back further and suddenly I veer off sharply to the side "Whoah ok, I've got you."

I can't help but make a half assed attempt at a glare which he completely ignores before hauling me back to my feet. Taking firm hold of my wrist and slinging my arm without the scrape back over his neck, he lopes his other arm around my shell.

"Ok, so the good news is you'll live. Bad news is nasty concussion, your arm's gonna need stitches and a bullet took a chink out of your shell."

Sighing dramatically I shifted irritably in his grip, I may be a little dizzy but my legs worked just fine.

"Wrong doofus." I was being a smart arse but couldn't care less. I hate it when he has to practically carry me home like some kind of hero. "Good news is we came, we saw, we kicked butt and stopped the bad guys." Man I sound like Mikey. Leo grins like an idiot nevertheless and I could have sworn I felt the grip on my wrist tighten just a little for a second there.

"-Bad news is, I'm _still _hungry and we _still _haven't got dinner. Mikey's gonna be chewing on the couch by the time we get in." This time he let out a small chuckle and I couldn't resist smirking back.

"Alright so let's go get those pizzas, I happen to like that couch."

We made it about five steps before my damn leg flared up again and I bit back a grunt of pain.

"Raph?" He lowered me back down quickly and pulled my leg out across his lap as he knealt in front of me, gently probing my foot, ankle and knee trying to find any damage.

"Where were you hurt?" He asks worried. I cringe in both pain and embarrassment.

"I'm not, it's just a cramp. S' fine Leo let it go." I grind out, he just stares at me incredulously for a moment then gets to work on massaging my leg until after a few minutes the pain eases off. I slouch heavily as the tightness and unbearable throbbing goes and Leo looks up to see his ministrations have worked.

"Better?"

I nod. I can feel heat on my face and scowl, looking anywhere but at his smug face. Tonight would have been a perfect night if it weren't for that.

Pulling me back to my feet he sighs loudly, "Well the good news is, I think you'll live. The bad news, I don't think the couch is gonna make it."

I punch him in the arm for being a smart arse.

And there are times when I like to think we're nothing alike.

* * *

Well, yeah 0_o;;; Hope someone out there liked it, if you'd care to review it would be greatly appreciated and comes with a free hug!


End file.
